The National Museum of African American Music and the Jefferson Street United Merchants Partnership are kicking things off early with “My Music Matters: A Celebration of Legends” luncheon at Wildhorse Saloon on Friday.

“Really, how great it is for them to think of us and honor us,” says Bar-Kays bass guitarist James Alexander. “How great it is — the timing of it all — to have a (African American Music) museum in Nashville, Tennessee.”

The museum seeks to showcase the history of African-American music. After years of delays and fundraising troubles, construction of the museum is expected to begin in early 2015. It will be one component of a larger redevelopment on the site of the old Nashville Convention Center.

“There’s a lot of great history that can be told through the story of music,” Alexander said, adding that The Bar-Kays are celebrating their 50th anniversary in the music business. “When we were still teenagers … we shopped around in Nashville because Nashville was the music center.”

From the 1940s through the early 1960s, Jefferson Street was one of America’s best-known districts for jazz, blues and rhythm & blues. Musicians including Little Richard and Jimi Hendrix got their starts in the clubs there, and Ray Charles, Fats Domino, B.B. King and Etta James were among the many who graced the stages at venues along Jefferson Street.

Alexander encourages all Tennesseans to honor jazz and blues history through the museum and events like the Jefferson Street Jazz & Blues Festival.

The festival is from noon to 10 p.m. Saturday at Bicentennial Mall State Park’s amphitheater, with R&B great LaSalle headlining. Other performers include Karlton Taylor Trio, Denny Giosa, Soul Sisters, Tyrone Dickerson and U Turn, Hershel Bailey and Mike Hicks and the Funkpuncs.

Tickets are $10 in advance or $15 at the gate for the whole day of music.

The “My Music Matters” luncheon is at 11:30 a.m. Friday at Wildhorse Saloon. Tickets are $75.